Editorial: Without Mandoli as director of public safety, Franklin Township is a poorer place

Franklin Township will be a poorer place for not re-appointing Ken Mandoli as its director of public safety.

Its officials seem to know this. Mayor Sue Campbell said the reason for doing away with his position, and designating an officer-in-charge to run the department instead, was completely financial. The cash-strapped township is trying to align its books so that expenses equal income.

Letting Mandoli go from one job, while keeping him as coordinator of emergency management and the Community Emergency Response team, will save the $35,000 the township paid last year for the part-time public safety position.

Mandoli’s departure as director of public safety is an odd twist, coming on the heels of a referendum in which township residents voted, by a margin of more than two-to-one, to keep their police department.

The township’s financial struggles aren’t new, and its Township Committee has labored for years to control its costs. Last year, it explored shuttering its police and paying another municipality to provide the service. Some residents balked, and that led to the November referendum.

Of course, no one knows what voters are thinking when they enter the voting booth. But it’s likely that many who chose to keep the Franklin Township Police Department were also sending another message: keep Ken Mandoli.

Mandoli is more than a cop. He’s a township resident and active volunteer. When a township event needs a sound system or a disc jockey, Mandoli is there. When scouts need guidance, when an emergency strikes, residents say Mandoli has been there — and often staying long after his official “shift” ended.

Mandoli has his critics, and his tenure was not without its challenges. But he was a small-town cop in the best sense of the term: accessible, friendly, helpful and a fellow resident. The range of police experience that preceded his stint in Franklin isn’t easily replaced: He gained it in Wichita, Kansas; San Diego; and then Bridgewater, where he retired after 22 years of service.

At a public meeting last week, residents expressed surprise that Mandoli had been dismissed. One committeeman suggested that he and fellow officials had discussed the matter one-on-one with each other in advance of voting in public.

If that’s true, it certainly violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the state Open Public Meetings Act.

Residents have a right to know what their officials are discussing and so, too, do public servants such as Mandoli.